Jane's Dream
by AiMei85
Summary: Years after the Second War has ended, a little girl has a terrifying dream. PreDH.


**Title:** Jane's Dream

**Rating:** PG

**Pairing:** Gen with allusions to H/G

**Summary: **Years after the Second War has ended, a little girl has a terrifying dream. PreDH.

* * *

It was dark. Jane shivered. She didn't like the dark, but she took a deep breath and edged forward. Something flickered somewhere to her right, and she moved toward it. Once her eyes were used to the dark, she could see faint light coming from an open door at the end of the hallway. Angry shouts and loud booms that made her cringe were also coming from the opening, but she kept toward it. Sometimes the light would flash or turn colors and a scary boom would follow. Her small hands clutched the hem of her jumper tightly, but she didn't stop.

When she reached the door, the angry sounds came louder and louder. Tears filled her eyes as her ears began to hurt, but she didn't cover them or run away. Carefully she crouched down and peaked around the edge of the opening. The room was very messy; rocks and dirt and broken pieces of wood were everywhere on the floor. People were lying on the floor too, but Jane tried not to look at them. The sight made her very sad. Instead, she focused on the people running all over the room. She noticed that they were making the loud noises and colorful light. Two wore long black wizarding robes. The other two wore muggle clothes – the kind she had often seen her brother wear – and all of them were dirty and had scary looks on their faces. Jane's mummy would have never let her out of the house if her clothes were torn like theirs.

Jane clutched her jumper tighter and knelt just inside the doorway, her doe eyes wide. The four people were paired off shooting colored light at each other and looking very angry, but Jane's eyes were drawn to the pair of men standing in the middle of the room. One of the men looked pale and sickly. He didn't act like he was sick though. He was tall and thin, and – Jane noticed with a gasp as he turned around – he had red eyes. Not the kind of red eyes her sister got when she had been crying, but _really_ red eyes. The other man wasn't as scary. He sort of looked familiar. Jane decided he must be a good man. She would have run up to him and hid behind his legs if it weren't for the angry look on his face.

She watched the two in the middle as they fought and yelled and threw colored light at each other. The whole thing made Jane very scared. Her lower lip trembled and she really wanted to run and find her mummy, but she couldn't look away. The other pair came closer to two in the middle. A flash of long red hair caught Jane's eye, and the woman with red hair yelled at a dark cloaked figure. The cloaked woman moved around the light thrown at her, and laughed at the shorter redhead. It wasn't the rich laughter of Jane's uncles; it was mean and cold and sent a chill down Jane's back. The cloaked woman made a funny motion with her hand, and instead of throwing light, ropes raced to the red-haired lady and tied her up. Jane's hands began to shake. She hoped the good man would notice and rescue her.

The cloaked woman was laughing her cold laughter again, and the good man looked up. The scary man shot light at him when he wasn't looking, and he flew across the room, closer to Jane's spot in the doorway. He fell to the ground with a crunch and didn't move.

Jane was very scared. She didn't want him to be hurt.

More movement drew Jane's attention. The red-haired lady must not have been trapped like Jane thought. She ran toward the good man, her red hair flying everywhere. She crouched down next to the man and began crying. Jane could hear some of the things she said as she touched his face.

"Harry! Wake up. Oh please don't be dead. You can't be dead!... Harry I love you! Wake up! You have to finish it." She pled and yelled and cried.

Jane wanted to run to her and hug her, but the scary people were slowly coming closer. The good man stirred on the ground.

"Ginny?" he croaked.

She stopped yelling and pleading. "Harry," she gasped.

The bad people were still coming up behind them. The two on the floor didn't seem to notice. Jane wanted to warn them, but instinctively she knew it was dangerous to make a noise. She bit her lip, and tears rolled silently from her eyes.

"I'm here, Harry," the woman whispered. Her eyes were still watery, but she smiled down at him. A dirty hand cupped her cheek and brushed away another tear.

The bad people were right behind them. Jane wanted to scream.

"I love you, Ginny," he told her.

The pale man stood behind them and pointed his arm down at them.

Jane's lip was bleeding from biting so hard. They had to get away before the bad man hurt them.

"I love you too," she responded, tears filling her eyes once more.

The pale man opened his mouth to say something; his red eyes were scarier and angrier than any Jane had ever seen. "Avada…" he hissed, but Jane could no longer hold her tongue.

She jumped to her feet. "WATCH OUT!" she screamed, running toward the two on the ground.

No one saw her or noticed her running.

The bad man kept speaking. "Kedavra!"

Then something very weird happened. The pale man had thrown green light at the couple, but they didn't see it or seem to care. The red-haired lady had bent down to kiss the man on the floor. White light spilled out everywhere as they kissed. It was so white, it hurt Jane's eyes, but the bad people couldn't even look. They were backing away and covering their faces. The light kept getting brighter and brighter until Jane wanted to look away even though she couldn't. Then there was the loudest boom of all, and Jane was knocked flat on her back.

She sat up straight in bed, opened her eyes, and promptly began wailing.

"MUMMY!" she screamed. Panting and shaking, she couldn't stop crying. Jane was so frightened. The back of her head hurt, her eyes hurt, her ears hurt. She needed her mummy. "Mummy!" she yelled again just before two figures burst into her room. She screeched and buried herself under the duvet.

"Jane. Sweetheart?" a soft voice called out.

Jane didn't answer, still trembling in the middle of her bed.

"Are you alright, baby," a deeper voice asked as well. It seemed closer.

Jane felt warm hands pull away the duvet, and the worried faces of her parents suddenly appeared. "Mummy! Daddy!" She launched herself at them, still crying. Two sets of arms instantly wrapped around her. One large hand gently rubbed her back, and a kiss landed on her forehead. Her daddy's voice whispered comforting things in one ear, and Jane could feel a heart thumping under the other.

"Did you have a bad dream?" her Mummy whispered when her sobs had calmed to little whimpers. Jane sniffed and nodded into her chest, hugging her mummy tighter.

"It's okay, baby," her daddy added. "You don't have to be frightened. We're right here."

Jane loosened her grip on her mother and turned to look at the familiar face of her father. She suddenly turned and wrapped her arms around him and gave him a fierce hug as well.

"It was a _very _bad dream, Daddy," she whispered into his chest. She could hear his heart beating under her ear too.

"Well, it's gone now. We're here, and we won't let anything hurt you," he soothed.

She pulled out of the hug and rubbed her wet and sleepy eyes. He smiled gently at her when she looked up into his familiar face.

"But the bad man was going to hurt you and Mummy, not me," she protested. Jane hadn't meant to say 'you and Mummy,' but now that the dream was over, she knew it was true. "He and a mean lady with a cold laugh were standing over you." Her parents exchanged a shocked look over her shoulder.

"And what happened?" her mummy asked.

"You didn't notice the bad man because you were too busy kissing Daddy," Jane responded. Her daddy's green eyes were twinkling with laughter, and her mummy's cheeks were pink. "But then the room was filled with this white light," Jane continued. "It was so bright it hurt my eyes to look at it, but it was much better than the green light the bad man kept throwing at Daddy." She paused to hug her daddy again. "I didn't like the green light at all," she whispered into his chest.

"Did you see anything else, baby?"

"No, but there was a loud boom, and I got knocked over," she finished her tale and turned to her mummy. She smiled down at Jane gently, but she seemed sad. Jane reached up and pushed a piece of long red hair behind her mummy's ear – a gesture she had seen her daddy do a million times. "Don't be sad Mummy. I don't think the bad man will come back, but if he does, you can just kiss Daddy again and scare him off."

At this statement her daddy let out a bark of laughter that filled the room. Her mummy's smile reached all the way to her eyes this time, and she nodded. "I'll remember to do just that," she said solemnly and kissed Jane on the forehead.

Jane let out a yawn. "I think it's time you get back to sleep little lady," the woman stated. Jane nodded. Once she had been tucked in and had received kisses from both parents, her daddy hesitated before leaving.

"If you ever have a scary dream again, you can always come tell us," he told her. "I don't want any bad man to hurt anyone in our family."

Jane blinked up at him, trying to keep her eyes open. "They won't Daddy. We'll scare them away," she said firmly.

"We will, hmm?" her mummy asked, kissing her on the forehead again.

"Mmm… Yes. You, me, Daddy, and my baby brother," Jane managed between yawns.

"Jim? Sweetheart, Jim is your _older_ brother," her mummy corrected gently.

"I know Jim is my older brother, Mummy," Jane stated as if that were obvious. "Jim and Emma are at school. They can't help scare bad people away," she explained with all the disdain of a four year old. "I wasn't talking about Jim." Jane reached out a small hand and patted her mummy's flat stomach. Jane smiled when she saw a picture behind her eyelids of her parents cooing over a tiny bundle with a tuft of hair. The hair was dark like her daddy's, not red like her own and her mummy's and Jim's. "He'll be a nice baby," she mumbled sleepily, laying back and pulling her covers closer. "He won't cry all the time like Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione's new baby," she finished with a yawn. "Nana'll be happy with two more babies coming…"

Jane missed the bewildered look her parents shared at that proclamation. She had already fallen asleep.


End file.
